Crossword Genius

Cheesiness, without his free spirit (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

essence

'spirit' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'cheesiness without his free' is the wordplay.
'without' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'free' indicates an anagram.
'cheesiness' with 'his' taken away is 'ceeness'.
'ceeness' with letters rearranged gives 'ESSENCE'.

(Other definitions for essence that I've seen before include "Concentrated liquid flavouring" , "Plant extract flavouring" , "Intrinsic quality" , "Intrinsic nature; four Dn" , "required property" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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